Why is the tomb of Zu Dashou, a famous soldier and minister of the two dynasties in Canada?

If you travel to Canada and visit the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, you will be surprised to find that in its exhibition hall on the first floor, there is a China Pavilion, which displays a large number of China cultural relics grandly. The richness and preciousness of the exhibits are amazing.

It is no exaggeration to say that most China museums are not as rich as its collections, and the rarity of China's collections in the Royal Ontario Museum is among the best in the world. As far as the parts on display are concerned, I'm afraid both the British Museum and the Louvre have to sigh.

The collection is spectacular in quantity and quality, ranging from stone tools to bronzes in primitive society in China, from Buddha statues to coins, and from Oracle Bone Inscriptions to blue and white porcelain.

A dazzling array of China cultural relics.

Of course, anyone who knows a little about history can immediately understand that the powers have taken it away!

Among China's collections in the exhibition room on the first floor of the main building, an ancient tomb stands out.

The first attraction, of course, is that it is very big. The whole tomb, funerary objects and stone carvings have been moved into the museum intact, with beautifully carved stone gates, stone statues of gatekeepers, stone octagonal skirts more than one meter high, and standard tombs of senior officials in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Stone statue in front of the tomb

More attractive to stop is the indicator board and electronic translator on the side: the name of "Zu Dashou" is written on it!

The name "Zu Dashou" is written on the electronic translation.

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People who are familiar with the history of Ming and Qing Dynasties will not think that the name Zu Dashou is well known.

If you don't know such a person, then baa baa will sum up Zu Dashou's eight words for you: a generation of famous soldiers, two ministers in two dynasties.

Zu Dashou, a military commander in the late Ming Dynasty, was born in Ningyuan, Liaodong, and uncle of Wu Sangui. Zu Dashou was born in a noble family in Ningyuan, and his ancestors were generals. Zu Dashou took office in 1620 (the first year of Taichang) and served as a guerrilla in JD.COM. He made outstanding achievements and was promoted repeatedly. Later, he was stationed in Ningyuan.

/kloc-in the first month of 0/626 (the sixth year of the apocalypse), Nurhachi attacked Ningyuan and was wounded by Zu Dashou soldiers guarding the city with artillery. The defeated Nurhachi soon died of his injuries, and Zu Dashou became famous in World War I, both inside and outside Shanhaiguan Pass.

After Nurhachi's death, Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne and attacked Ningyuan again. Yuan Chonghuan ordered Zu Dashou to lead four thousand chosen men around the enemy lines. The company commanders Man Gui and You Shiwei led the troops to the front of the enemy to form a horn, and fought fiercely with the Qing soldiers at the gates of Ningyuan. In the same year, in June of the lunar calendar, the Qing army was defeated, which was the famous "Ningjin Victory". Zu Dashou became the most effective general under Yuan Chonghuan.

1629, Huang taiji bypassed Ningyuan and Jinzhou and rushed into the pass, which was a change for himself. Huang Taiji used a double agent, and Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned for some reason. Zu Dashou was worried about being implicated, so he destroyed Shanhaiguan and escaped. Emperor Chongzhen didn't want to lose such a famous star, so he ordered Yuan Chonghuan to write a letter to Zhaofu, and Zu Dashou returned to Shanhaiguan.

163 1 In the battle of Daling River, Zu Dashou ran out of grain and grass and was forced to surrender to the Qing army. This time, however, his clearance was only a stopgap measure and he quickly fled back to Jinzhou. Chongzhen was suspected, and there was a Yuan Chonghuan massacre ahead, so Zu Dashou was afraid to go to Beijing. This way, Huang Taiji is still netting.

164 1 year, Huang taiji launched Jin Song war, and reinforcements Hong Chengchou went south, while Zu Dashou ran out of ammunition. A year later, he came down again.

In the face of this Ming general who shot Nurhachi, repeatedly fell and fought, and his hands were covered with the blood of the Eight Banners, Huang Taiji gave him preferential treatment and named him the company commander of Zhenghuangqi of the Han army. At the behest of Huang Taiji, Zu Dashou wrote a letter of surrender to his nephew Wu Sangui, but it was rejected by Wu Sangui.

The Qing army is in full swing. Outside Shanhaiguan, Ningyuan is the only isolated city. After that, Chongzhen hanged himself, the capital fell, Wu Sangui fell, and the Qing army entered the customs and occupied Beijing. Zu Dashou followed him into the customs and died in Shunzhi for thirteen years.

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In a few words, I have finished the life of a generation of famous people.

Zu Dashou's life is the life of a strong man who craves meat. In order to defend his country and fight bloody battles, he never blinks under knives and axes and refuses to bow his head under power. Although he suffered repeated defeats and battles, he was not guaranteed in the later period, but this did not affect that he was still an iron-blooded general.

Speaking of his tomb, as I said before, Zu Dashou died of illness in a mansion on Zujia Street in Beijing, so why did his tomb come to Canada?

The whole thing started in 264 years after Zu Dashou's death. ...

Counting by fingers, more than 200 years after Zu Dashou's death, it was the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.

At that time, China was not peaceful and the people were uncivilized. I don't know how many missionaries, capitalists and speculators came from abroad and looked around.

China has a long history of thousands of years, and speculators have taken a fancy to a large number of precious cultural relics in China. It happened that in China at that time, ordinary people didn't know how valuable those antiques were, and they were all sold to foreign cultural relics purchasers at low prices, the most famous of which was Oracle Bone Inscriptions.

People in China don't know what precious historical materials are recorded on these ancient tortoise shell bones. Instead, they are used as the "keel" of medicinal materials and sold in pharmacies. It was discovered by foreign cultural relics dealers and bought at a low price, which led to the loss of a large number of precious Oracle bones overseas.

In this case, Zu Dashou's tomb was resold to Canada by a foreign missionary. This man's name is William Charles White and his English name is William Charles White. 1897 At the beginning of this year, William Charles White came to Fujian in the name of the Anglican Church. Like most missionaries, he preached in China, founded hospitals and schools, and later became the bishop of Henan Episcopal Church.

At the same time, as a bishop, he plundered Henan cultural relics, especially two tombs of Zhou nobles in Luoyang, which caused a large number of precious cultural relics to be scattered overseas and caused great damage to China culture.

Canada is a British dominion. He and other missionaries, fur traders and cultural relics dealers smuggled a large number of stolen cultural relics into Canada. During this period, the Royal Ontario Museum asked William Charles White and others to buy a complete set of Ming and Qing Tombs in China.

1920 personally visited the site of the blacksmith camp cemetery in Fengtai. After being approved by the museum, he spent 50 yuan to buy this group of stone carvings and the owner's octagonal tomb stone wall, and then shipped it to Canada not far from Wan Li.

At that time, the name of the tomb owner provided by William Charles White to the museum was transliterated in English. The museum didn't know who the owner of the tomb was for a long time, and only studied it as a typical Ming and Qing tombs. It was not until many years later, after expert research and identification, that the owner of the tomb was Zu Dashou.

Zu Dashou's tomb has been "settled" in Canada for more than 100 years, but it was hundreds of years after his death that he moved away from his native land and became a "China exhibit". Some people say that Zu Dashou is the earliest immigrant in China, which is not wrong. ...

Stone statues of students in front of the tomb

Exquisite relief on the tomb wall

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In recent years, there are different voices about Zu Dashou's tomb. Some experts say that Zu Dashou's tomb in the Canadian Museum is actually the tomb of Zu Dashou's nephew, and the real Zu Dashou's tomb is still in Xingcheng, his hometown. When selling tombs to foreigners, cultural relics dealers probably borrowed the signboard of Zu Dashou, a famous historical figure, to raise the price.

But experts from the Royal Museum of Ontario insisted that the tomb was Zu Dashou himself, and cited many examples. However, in China, the so-called "true tomb of Zudashou" has never been found. It's Ye Feiye, and the historical mystery inside is unknown to us spectators.

It can be said that 100 years ago, there was indeed such a complete tomb of the Ming and Qing dynasties, which was sold abroad across the ocean, and similar things are by no means rare.

Foreign historians once said: "China culture is in China, and cultural research is abroad."

From the British Museum, Louvre Museum and Metropolitan Museum with rich collections to the Royal Museum of Ontario in this article, countless precious China antiquities have flowed overseas for various historical reasons, either displayed in museums, or put into the pockets of private collectors, or damaged and difficult to recover. This is a great pity for the country!